1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Salon Light Mounts

With the 12v wiring powered up throughout the boat, next I started installing the panels that the new salon lights will go into once the headliner is installed.

Reusing original plywood

I kept most of the plywood that was still in good shape when we demolished the original interior back in 2008. It’s made my garage a mess for a decade, so I’m happy to be using the old wood while putting the boat back together. This is 1/2″ plywood, and the Whisper Wall track that the headliner goes into is also 1/2″ high.

Kai 12v LED marine lights, courtesy of a fellow boater

A fellow whose been following the refit very generously donated 20 Kai LED lights. He bought them for his own boat, but they were too deep to fit above the headliner. They’ll fit this Roamer just fine!

IMTRA LEDs I bought previously will go in the aft cabin and bathrooms

Hole saw then jigsaw and one mount is ready to go

Pretty slick

Springs on the backside hold them firmly in place.

First light mount is installed

Mass production

The salon panels are all cut

Line up the big holes in the panels and screw them to the overhead frames

Make sure the panels line up horizontally, too

The panels have to line up horizontally so hard edges don’t push the headliner and print through. The Whisper Wall headliner is 56″ wide, same as conventional Chris Craft perforated headliner. The lights are seven watts, so they’re not super bright. I’ll have nine of them in the salon spaced about 24″ apart, plus the OEM light fixture in the center of the salon and galley that can be turned on if the missus  (who likes lots of light) wants it brighter.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Wiring the New Salon Lights.

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Powering Up the 12VDC Breaker Panel

My Boatamalan* painter says the Whisper Wall headliner has to be installed before he sprays the ICA clear top coat in the salon and V-berth. Before the headliner can be installed, all of the  lighting and sound system wiring and attachment points have to be installed. Since access to the wiring will be complicated once the headliner is installed, I wanted to power up the 12vdc breaker panel first so I can identify all of the circuits and make sure things work the way I want. This will be a big step. The boat was put on the hard back in the mid-1980s, and the last registration sticker on the helm station side windows was dated 1981. Unless I’m wrong, these circuits haven’t been energized for ~35 years.

Boatamalan: portmanteau indicating highly skilled boat workers of Central American origin. They’re actually from Honduras, but Boatamalan rolls off the tongue better.

The main power panel

First, I installed the remote for the Magnum inverter/charger

Next, I installed the battery selector switches

I made the switch base two years ago. Man…how time flies. Anyway, I wetted out the contact areas with epoxy, applied wood flour-thickened epoxy, then screwed the switch base in place.

That looks about right

The switches are  located just inside a hatch I cut in the salon floor that’s sized so an 8D battery can be lowered into the engine room. They’re out of the way, but are easily accessed from either the ER or the salon. I wanted it that way because on other Chris Crafts I’ve owned, I could only access the switches from one or the other space. This is much more convenient.

Installing the cross-overs

Next, the battery cables got installed

One last check of the wiring in the salon service chase

Speaking of the service chase, back in May 2018 I installed the service chase panels when I was working on the aft salon cabinet interior. It looked great!

See what I mean?

But over the summer, I started noticing a problem with the upper panel…the one that I’d had my painter put a new veneer on, then stain and spray to match the rest of the salon.

Blisters and waves

In the heat of the summer, it developed big blisters under the mahogany veneer (encircled above) and you can see and feel waves where the arrow is. They did a poor job with the contact cement, and now the whole thing has to be redone. It’s really frustrating paying expensive professionals to do a job poorly. Fortunately, he says he’ll redo it for no charge.

Anyway, back to the 12v breaker panel.

The moment of truth

Chris Craft powered the 12v breaker panel such that the starboard engine battery powered one bank of breakers and the port side powered the other. I’ll be using several batteries that will make up the starboard engine/house bank. The port engine will have just a starting battery. So I wired both banks of the breakers together with a jumper rather than using the original cable from the port battery.

With everything attached, I made sure all of the breakers were off then flipped the battery switch to the ON position.

Nothing happened…no sparks…no smoke…nothing. I was so happy! So then I started flipping breakers on one by one. Again…no sparks…no smoke…nothing. So I went to the aft stateroom and flipped the switch on one of the OEM light fixtures…and something happened!

And then there was light!

I spent the next hour going around with a multimeter, confirming that there’s power throughout the 12v system. Everything checks out. For the first time in three decades, juice is flowing through the 12v wiring!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Salon Light Mounts

1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Final Install of the V-Berth Forward Bunk Cabinet

I was reading an article recently about how major depression is on the rise among young people in America. There are all sorts of theories as to why that’s happening–the internet and toxic social media, the politicization of everything, the formerly slack economy, massive college debt accrued studying subjects that have little to no value in the economy, etc. Those factors (and many more) may contribute to the situation, but it seems to me that a more fundamental factor is that humans aren’t made for a free and easy life. Strife and complex challenges make life worth living. Take away strife and big challenges, which isn’t all that difficult in the modern era, and the simple, worry-free life turns into a vacuum sucking out your soul. And what fills that void is almost never a good thing. When I see articles talking about how the solution is to provide mental health counseling and other support at work, and school, for example, I wonder why they think more of what caused the condition in the first place (i.e. make life easy) can fix it. I think that’s a recipe for making it worse.

They don’t need counseling…they need a challenging hobby. And where else to find a challenging hobby than in the Purgatory Rows in every boatyard across the fruited plains? That’s how this Roamer refit began, and I assure you that in spite of the paperwork SNAFU, the ongoing tent improvement project (Model XXXv4 is the best so far!), the bastard thieves clearing me out, and Nor’easter storm damage setting the project back, I couldn’t tell you what depression is because I’ve never experienced it. I can tell you all about frustration, but that’s not a debilitating mental illness.

Since I started this project ten years ago, I’ve learned to do cabinetmaking, TIG welding on stainless and aluminum, and there’s always a challenge waiting for me when I arrive at the boatyard. So if you know any millennials who are griping about how life sucks while walking down paved streets staring at their ‘smart phones’ and sipping their $5 double-mocha vente coffees, tell them where they can find purpose: go to the boatyard and commit to bringing an unloved boat back to life…and stick to it!

Speaking of which, I wrapped up the cabinetry in the V-berth. A year ago, I was working on the bed foundation and surrounding cabinetry in the V-berth. I decided to build a little cubby cabinet at the forward end of the bed surround, and I made it so it could be dismantled for access to the forward stem, AC ducting, and wiring that’s behind the cabinetry. I recently finished the installation of the AC ducting, so once I get the wiring done and cubby cabinet reinstalled, this is a wrap.

The starboard panel comes out first

Then push the insulation back

Today’s parts and materials

I’ll put in a 120v plug here as well as a combination 12vdc/USB charging port.

Slide the panel back in while feeding the wires into the proper holes

I’m using leak-resistant electrical boxes, which are better at stopping cold (or hot) outside air from leaking into air conditioned spaces

12vdc/USB port is installed

And that’s pretty much a wrap

Installing the outlet and face plate won’t take but five minutes, and I plan to do lots of them in one go. That’s a wrap for the V-berth cubby cabinet!

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Back Into the Aft Stateroom